Thursday, June 24, 2010

Everyone has been talking about growing tomatoes upside down. I've heard claims of higher yields and disease free tomatoes. We didn't decide to give it a try for any of those reasons. We decided to give it a try because we had so many extra tomato plants from all the seeds we planted indoors early this Spring.

Here's what we did:1. Collect containers. For us, they were pop containers and milk cartons that we would have otherwise put out with our recycling. I also tried using one growing bag pouch that had been used for flowers several years ago.

2. Cut the top off the container. This will be the top of the container. Poke holes into the side of the containers and string wire, string and/or ribbon through the holes so that you can hang the container.

3. Place tomato seedling in the bottom small hole of the container (usually the pouring spout).

4. You will need a material to place around the stem of the plant. This can be newspaper of a plastic bag. Pack the material around the stem so that the plant is anchored and will not slip through the hole until the root system has developed and it can hold it's own.

5. Hang in sunny spot, water often and watch it grow!

I do like the idea of these planters because it allows you to make effective use of garden space. Why should all plants be placed on the same two-dimensional plane? Will update to let you know how the tomato growing goes.